Perpendicular magnetic recording heads have been developed for use in hard disk drive systems. Some examples of perpendicular recording heads are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,471 to Ashiki et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,541,026 to Bonin et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,546,398 to Toda et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,575,777 to Hosokawa, U.S. Pat. No. 4,613,918 to Kanai et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,449 to Sawada et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,157 to Lazzari, U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,110 to Kanamine et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,738,927 to Nakamura et al.
In order to increase the data storage density of hard disk drives, the use of magnetic media having increased magnetic anisotropy has been proposed. However, highly anisotropic media exhibit extremely high coercivities, e.g., well over 5,000 Oe. Conventional perpendicular magnetic recording heads are not capable of recording on media having such high coercivities.
The present invention has been developed in view of the foregoing, and to address other deficiencies of the prior art.